


One Ends, Two Begin

by ilyena_sylph, Merfilly



Series: Get Out of the Fridge [2]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Background Relationships, Character Death, Childbirth, Gen, Mental Instability
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-29
Updated: 2016-09-29
Packaged: 2018-08-18 12:43:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,705
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8162419
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ilyena_sylph/pseuds/ilyena_sylph, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: Our fugitives all find places to hide, while a dangerous situation emerges on Mustafar.





	

Obi-Wan had been certain he would find a clue as to Ana-- Vader's whereabouts by going to Padmé. However, evading the clones had slowed him down, and now he found the apartment empty. 

Fear gripped his heart. The young woman was such a survivor but Vader was ruthless. Not a single Jedi that had still been in the Temple had survived. At least the bulk of the younglings and Initiates had gotten away. If Master Yoda was correct, at least two Masters had made it out with them.

The archivists, the healers, and the wounded that had been on hand had tried their hardest to hold the Temple. 

Security footage had not, however, been able to show them who had warned them to evacuate the young.

Throwing caution to the winds, as his heart was heavy with grief and betrayal, Obi-Wan tapped his comm to try and ping Padmé's. Hearing it go off in the bedroom froze his heart completely.

She never went anywhere without it!

"Force save us all," he whispered, before going to regroup with Master Yoda. If he could not find Vader, he would help take down the Chancellor… or die trying.

* * *

Refuge, it turned out, was on Saleucami. Ahsoka and Rex were pretty certain they could lay low there, at least once Rex scouted the place out and possibly had to convince his contact to submit to a quick medical procedure.

Ahsoka got the ship down and out of sight, then Rex set out with the light-frame speeder bike. Padmé was worried about him, worrying about Ahsoka who had fallen into a deep silence, and pretty much just worried. Everything was happening and now she was feeling guilt for abandoning her position and responsibility.

At the farmhouse, Rex found Suu had been a resourceful woman when Cut had pulled himself into a military bearing suddenly… and knocked him out with a frying pan. This had led to the former clone trooper being tied up and held captive by his family, while she tried to figure out what to do.

"Give me a minute with him?" Rex asked, his voice gruff. "There's a chip in his head, and it probably picked up the order that went out from the garrison General Kenobi stationed here."

"Can you fix it?" Suu asked, eyes narrow.

"Got mine out and the tech told me how to disable it without surgery. He's going to get a bit of a jolt, but yeah, I can fix it."

Suu moved out of his way, and Rex went to work. He took a droid popper out, recalibrated it a bit, and set it down by the struggling but very restrained man.

"Sorry, vod, but you'd hate yourself if you tried to go report in now." Rex thumbed it and got back as quickly as he could, letting it set off the burst of electricity and EMP to save Cut from the vileness in his head.

Cut jerked, then spasmed, making Suu nearly rush forward, but then he went limp and she hesitated, watching. When she could see his chest rising and falling, she hurried to get the binders and restraints off of him.

"Who did this?" Suu demanded as she freed her husband.

"The Sith," Rex growled. "I'm a fugitive, or will be, once muster happens and I'm not accounted for," he told her. "I don't like putting your family at risk, but I've got another fugitive with me, and a pregnant woman."

Suu looked at him with those suspicious eyes, then she glanced at her husband, who was slowly shaking off the effect of the popper. "Cut?"

"I'm here, Suu. No more voice in my head," he managed to say, before looking toward Rex. "You ever going to drop by without some excitement?" Cut drawled, showing he was more than feeling like himself. Rex snorted.

"Brother, I need a place to stay. I understand if you or your wife say 'no', but I need a place to lay low until I get better intel on how to protect my _jetii_ and her friend."

Rex was watching for the reaction to who was with him, and was very relieved when Cut just gave a quick nod.

"Bring them on in, Captain. We'll help them stay out sight. Not many come out this way anyhow."

"I owe you, many times over, vod."

* * *

Obi-Wan arrived after the fight had begun. Yoda was doing a masterful job of holding his own, but the Sith was so powerful.

The part of him that was an honorable and reluctant warrior wanted him to rush headlong into the fight.

Whispers of strategy and a need to insure the man did not walk away from this showed him a different way. He remembered Ahsoka, forced to take an opponent in the back to save them all. More soberly, he recalled Anakin's lightsaber plunging through an unarmed man's back to save them as well.

He did not have the luxury of holding onto his ethics and honor in this.

Palpatine had to die, preferably before he managed to wear down the ancient master battling him. Choice made, Obi-Wan used all of his skill in shielding and stealth, getting to a point where he could make the needed strike.

* * *

On a volcanic planet, surrounded by the dead leaders of the Separatist faction, a young man that had thrown everything away for the salvation of his family, collapsed as if he had been a puppet on strings suddenly cut.

All the fog around the future changed, becoming the unknowable frontier to tread upon, and his certainty of his life's purpose melted away. He tried to cling to consciousness, reaching for the ever-present support of the Master he had chosen, only to find an emptiness echoed by that in his soul -- and at that, he fell into a far deeper, and more lasting, unconsciousness that was anything but restful.

* * *

Preparing for the birth of the twins had been a frantic rush of Ahsoka asking questions, Rex acquiring certain items from a med clinic, and not a little exasperation from Suu. Then again, neither of her children had been difficult on her.

That was not the case with their guest, Suu quickly saw as they helped her into a birthing chair. Ahsoka was pushing all of her nerves away, refusing to give credit to the visions her master had seen before everything catapulted them into this situation.

"Rex, give me the blocker," Suu said, and the man did, glad to do something to help the woman that was trying valiantly to not cry out as the twins readied to enter the world. Ahsoka was on her knees in front of the chair, prepared to put her new lessons to work.

Padmé could only gasp as the pain she had been feeling dissipated to mere pressure, and Ahsoka rested a hand on her stomach.

"It's almost done," the Togruta crooned, too worried over all of this to even think about the galaxy as a whole, or the aching emptiness in the Force. While Cut wrangled their children out of the way, and Rex stood by to help with cleaning the babies, Suu and Ahsoka both watched the signs and coached Padmé through the delivery. 

It took a longer time than Suu had expected, but by dawn, they had two healthy babies, a sleeping new mother, and a former Padawan that was all but exhausted by her own nerves. Rex, keeping guard over them all, felt hope at the scene, and Cut could see the captain reworking his entire life mission.

* * *

Somehow, in killing the man that would be Emperor, two Jedi managed to plunge the Republic further into chaos. The order against the Jedi stood, leaving all those who had escaped initially at risk for summary execution. Fortunately, no one was commanding the Vod'e adequately; they were stubbornly resisting the self-appointment of Tarkin to the position, insisting that their new chain of command had to be chosen by the Senate.

There were voices speaking for the Jedi, but the Republic was weary. It would take time, even as those same brave souls began challenging the draconic laws they had been living under.

The Separatists had -- somehow -- not attacked in the ten-day following the Emperor's demise, to all of their relief.

To those two Jedi's shocked surprise, they found Mace Windu in the lower levels of Coruscant as they tried to remain safe from the clones congregating on the world, bereft of their generals. He was in a state of shock, very ill from his injuries, but he was alive. Keeping him that way gave the pair a chance to focus on healing, instead of fruitless plans for how to get past the Fleet blockade.

The subject of Vader did not come up between them save one time. Mace admitted in one of his coherent moments that he had been too far gone in his fighting trance to truly evaluate what happened.

"The Temple?" Mace asked in a feverish moment.

"Young ones, put on ships, sent away. Masters Ti and Allie, believe them to be with the younglings. All others, one with the Force." Yoda delivered the news, mixed as it was, with hope, for the future.

"Who gave the order to evacuate, I still wonder," Obi-Wan mused aloud. "We've accounted for every Jedi we can think was on planet."

"Hmm, mysterious are the ways of the Force," Yoda replied to that. "Know more, once healing is complete, and away from here we go."

* * *

The young man on Mustafar finally -- somewhat -- came back to his senses, though that was a slow and trying process that had led to several dismembered droids and a few sentients running in fear. Only one of these had he attacked and that had been because of being threatened with a blaster. 

His mind was... rent, and chaotic, and coherence was difficult. Now, no more certain of his purpose but knowing he had to do something, the young man left the death he had brought behind him. With the droid that had come from her, he left the planet, flying back toward the haven of the one he had done it all for, needing to find himself through her grace.


End file.
